1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to price channels of the kind frequently used at the front of merchandise shelves in supermarkets and the like for attaching pricing labels, or signs pertaining to the merchandise on the shelves.
Steel merchandise shelves frequently are made with a C-shaped channel along the front edge in which labels or sign holders can be fitted. Where such shelves are formed without a channel, plastic fittings can be added to the shelves to provide such channels. Price channels can generally be used to accommodate snap-in price labels and sign holders or smaller adhesive backed labels.
When price channels are used, as above, for labeling merchandise on a shelf, no significant problems arise for shelves which are at a convenient viewing height for a customer. For shelves near floor level, and shelves above eye level, however, customers have trouble in reading price channel labels because the labels are generally vertically oriented.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
One known form of extruded plastic snap-in label holder is seen in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,632 issued Mar. 7, 1995 (the '632 patent) and illustrated herein in FIGS. 1-3. This prior art label holder 10 provides labeling panel 12 oriented at an angle when the price channel is fitted on a lowermost shelf 18 of a set of supermarket or the like shelves as seen in FIG. 3 so that a label is more readily viewed by a customer.
The known label holder 10 includes a rearwardly and downwardly extending leg 14 and a projecting barb 16 at the top of the labeling panel 12. When snapped into an existing C-channel of a metal shelf 18, the barb 16 engages behind the upper lip 20 of the C-channel, the tip of leg 14 engages behind the lower lip 22, and the labeling panel 12 is angled upwardly. As seen in the '632 patent, the price channel 10 can be inverted and snapped into a C-channel on an uppermost shelf to angle the labeling panel downwardly to facilitate viewing from below.
As is well known, label holders of this type are commonly provided with a co-extruded clear plastic front cover 24 providing a means whereby non-adhesive labels can be retained against the labeling panel. The label holder 10 of the '632 patent splits the lower lip 12b to enable the channel to hold labels behind the cover and sign holders between the lip 12b at the bottom of the labeling panel 12 and the lip 17 at the top thereof.
More recently, combination label/sign holder have been developed wherein labels can be selectively inserted and removed from the label holder pocket without removing any of the sign holders associated with related products on a merchandising shelf. Such a construction is seen in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,112 issued May 27, 2003 (the '112 patent), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The sign holder portion of the combination label/sign holder of the '112 patent is carried by, and moves with, the cover member of the label holder, avoiding interfering with access to the label holder pocket. This is accomplished by providing the front surface of the cover member of the label holder with a pair of sign holder-receiving lip members which can snappingly receive edge portions of a resilient plastic or metal sign holder such as seen in the '632 patent or commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,793 for the engaging portions of a depending sign holder of the type seen in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,682,698 and 6,163,996, the subject matters of all of which are incorporated herein by reference, or other such commercially available sign holders.
For simplicity, the term “label holder” as used herein and in the appended claims is intended to include products which may or may not incorporate a sign holder according to the '112 patent.
Commercially, different merchandisers use sets of product shelves having different integral C-channels along their front edges. The most extensively used shelves of this nature are known in the art as the Lozier shelf, the Madix shelf and the Streater shelf. The C-channels of each of these shelves include the equivalent of an upper, downwardly depending lip and a lower, upwardly extending lip for receipt of upper and lower portions of fit-in accessories such as the label holder of the '632 patent. However, the distance between these lip members, as well as the angle provided by the lip members, are different in each of these types of shelves. While the price channel of the '632 patent can be engaged in the C-channels of each of the Lozier, Madix and Streater shelves, the engagement may be less than secure because of the differences in the spacing between the upper and lower lip members of these shelves, and the relative inflexibility of the rearwardly extending leg 14 which, as seen in FIGS. 1-3 of the '632 patent, extends generally at a right angle from the rear of the labeling panel 12 and arcs downwardly therefrom providing little adjustability to accommodate C-channels of different dimensions. Moreover, when engaged in the C-channels of the different shelf units, the angle of presentation of the label is significantly different from the angle of inclination of a label engaged directly in the C-channels of such shelves. In many instances, this change in the viewing angle makes it more difficult for a customer or the like to read the information on a label carried by the price channel.